Cat In The Bag
Marzuki Message
Grilled Birds took another Division Two side down in the Singapore Cup, repeating a 2-1 margin over leading East Coast club International CAT F.C. today. Chia Siong Leng and Chiang Heng Min had both returned from their knocks sustained in wins against Arcturules and The Sing Tigers respectively, to start against the Birds today, but Number Nine Brandon Iwasaki would stay on the bench throughout, with Vietnamese forward Huỳnh Thế Doanh lining up alongside Chia instead.
CAT would have former youth international defender Suhaizi Arshad taking central defence, as they - like Marina Tigers - sought to catch this young Birds setup on the counter. Alas, they would be largely denied much like the Tigers too, with the fast-growing Birds rather more lethal on the front foot than they probably expected.
Chan Ze Han would be called on again to lead the line, with
Ibnou Balde and
Gandhik Chitre his support strikers for this match.
The early battles would be fought almost exclusively in midfield, with CAT not eager to let Grilled in too deep. CAT skipper Ow Kong Chuan found himself in the thick of things quite frequently, and would be accidentally kneed in his sensitive bits by a teammate, after six minutes. That got enough sympathy from
Chia Kwang Tse to send the ball out of play immediately for Ow to get it looked at, and the free-kick would gamely be returned with the sportsmanship on show from both sides duly applauded by the crowd.
The East Coasters were perhaps giving Grilled Birds too much time on the ball, however, apparently something that had not been learnt from last Wednesday; with the Birds only too happy to advance all along the breadth of the pitch, corners would come, and
Enrique Baena met one of those with the side of his head, in the 13th minute. That header itself was going nowhere fast, but
Gandhik Chitre moved before anyone else, and banged it full into Riek Fendt - and then the net.
There was scarce mercy shown there by the rising 19 year-old, who thus started a little scoring streak of his own, following on his goal against LAVINO QUAY in his last appearance. The Birds continued to attack with evident relish, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul gradually making himself the focal point. Chan would gladly defer when a through pass came up the middle after 26 minutes, which Marzuki took past Arshad with the slightest of taps, before burying it for 2-0.
Next to nothing was going the way of CAT in this first half, and while they did screen Grilled's forwards off with some success, set pieces kept on getting conceded. The Birds could thus afford to get cute on some of those, and
Gilbert Webb would try a sneaky lob to the near side of the wall with 35 minutes gone.
Hwang Teck Fu looked set to get on the end of that, but Wan Malik Syafiq came in with a belated sliding tackle.
Hwang would go off for
Lim An Keng for the second half, which had CAT head coach Siu Kuan Puay send his team out with a much more proactive outlook. Again as with Marina Tigers, this made them a lot more dangerous, counterintuitivelly on their counters as well.
Enrique Baena couldn't be everywhere at once when Chinese fullback Ye Nianzu broke out in the 60th, and Ye would slice his way through some indecisive Birds defending, before slipping it on for Chia Siong Leng to fire home on the volley.
The spectacular finish gave CAT renewed heart, but Grilled seemed equally inspired to protect what remained of their lead. They would hog the ball even more purposefully via a mix of crowding the opposition and overloading sections of the field in turn, and
Ibnou Balde would earn the best remaining chance of the day, when he blew past a stricken Arshad before trying to place it past Fendt. There wasn't enough pace on the shot, sadly, and Balde will have to wait a little longer to open his goal account with Grilled.
That would see Arshad replaced by Mohd Hairul Nizam Uthman for the final fifteen minutes in the aftermath, with Chan himself bowing out for
Joe Reece to stretch his legs in the 85th minute, and Mangoye off for
Mohsen El Khateeb at the same time. CAT would not be able to get into Grilled's half with any consistency, unfortunately for them, and they were out.